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Don't look for Florida's GOP corporatist government to fund soup kitchens during the coming New Depression. (photo: Wikimedia Commons)
If only the nation will pay attention, Florida has now become the perfect laboratory model for single-party Republican corporatist rule. When Alex Sink conceded to Rick Scott this morning, Republicans in Florida cemented a clean sweep of all statewide offices on the ballot. In addition, Republicans now hold over two thirds of the seats in both the Florida House and Florida Senate. Leading this merry band of corporatists will be Governor Rick Scott, who holds the distinction of having been CEO of the corporation that holds the record for the largest fine ever assessed ($1.7 billion) in settling Medicare fraud charges. With unemployment in the state now at 12 percent (pdf) and property values severely depressed from the burst property bubble, I see no way that a state without an income tax can withstand corporatist rule under these parameters without sliding into a New Depression.
This graph of unemployment in Florida shows that employers began trimming jobs as Charlie Crist took office in 2006. When the national economic crisis hit, Florida jobs then began to be cut faster than in the rest of the nation.
Depressed revenues to local governments in Florida because of property values that have plummeted already has caused problems even before Republicans won their larger majorities:
A drop in property tax revenue forced four Central Florida county governments to slash their budgets by a combined $114 million for 2010-2011, reduce services and eliminate hundreds of jobs. And at least one county resorted to a tax hike.
It was the region’s third consecutive year of declining property values, which fell about 12 percent in 2009, or $20.8 billion, pushing the area’s median home value down to $110,000 from $135,000, according to a new report generated by the Orlando Regional Realtor Association this month.
Republicans should own the coming melt-down in Florida entirely, having held the governor’s seat since JEB! was elected in 1998. They have presided over privatization of an incredible number of state functions and have removed almost all semblance of government oversight or regulation. There is, however, one thing of which we can be sure when it finally becomes clear that Florida will not be able to function without a massive federal bailout, possibly bringing the rest of the nation into the New Depression: it will all be Obama’s fault.
77 Comments
Respectfully disagree w/ your conclusions. Japans lost decades prove that you can limp along with no growth and high unemployment. Same here no?
I agree that income taxes will help florida if the taxes aren’t spent on crap like Football stadiums, which just suck economic activity from other parts of the county.
Yes, but Japan has it’s own currency and central bank,which can affect money supply, interest rates and inflation. Florida is at the mercy of national forces with little ability to offset them.
Seems like you can now put WI in a separate test tube right next to FL.
thanks, very interesting.
Florida is ALREADY in a depression. If you own real estate, you are likely upside down or at the very least your equity has evaporated. You can’t sell it at any price. Unemployment is through the roof and there are few jobs, if any. Tourism is way way way off. And, there’s that nasty storm thing they face each year that might wipe you out as well. Try and get property insurance? What could be worse for them?
No no no, it’s YOUR fault. And Jane’s. And that other guy.
People in Florida are simply going to get a double dose of what Americans nationally deserve. You want corporate rule from the three wings of the Republican Party? Well, there is a hefty price to be paid for that nonsense………..
Diana Olick at CNBC dropped this little gem yesterday. On Miami Beach at the current sales pace, there is an 18 YEAR supply of condos on the market.
Ohio is right next to Wisconsin and Florida. A Wall Streeter, former Lehman Bros VP in fact, just got elected Governor with 49% of the vote. Another one term governor, if we even have elections in 2016. I see the mortgage bubble busting again and the big banks squealing for another bailout with the fraudclosure mess in another year or two. What happens then? Will the Republicans stand their ground and support letting the “free market” work? Will progressive Democrats make the same mistake twice?
I doubt it, though Corporate America and their puppet President will push for it. Interesting times approach. We must have pissed off some Chinese dude.
Sorry, I’ve got my laminated Constitution right here and nowhere does the phrase “bail out Florida” appear. So that power is reserved to the States. Florida can bail itself out. By its bootstraps. Without raising taxes.
Remember to Vote Teabagger!
“There is, however, one thing of which we can be sure when it finally becomes clear that Florida will not be able to function without a massive federal bailout, possibly bringing the rest of the nation into the New Depression: it will all be Obama’s fault.”
Just this alone would propel a leader to throw down the gauntlet. To say “I will not let this happen.” And fight tooth and nail to prevent it.
There is something seriously wrong with Obama. There is a pathological fear of engaging the fight. I know, I know, he wants all this to happen. Well, I don’t believe it.
I think this is an excellent real time experiment. CA vs. FL. One is Dem and the other is Repub.
Except for the fact that CA has the crazy budget legislation that required a supermajority to pass budgets while Republicans blocked them, with help from Ahrnuld. So the cause of the pain is not just Democratic in CA. Republicans have had a stranglehold on FL for a number of years.
Japan has cash which they buy our debt with or can use for bankbailouts, stimulus etc America only has debt.
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Diana Olick at CNBC dropped this little gem yesterday. On Miami Beach at the current sales pace, there is an 18 YEAR supply of condos on the market.
Holy Crap
florida is a dying state just like nevada.
wait till the full effects of the oil spill take hold.
nothing will revive the economy of florida as even the economy destroys its tourism.
Just what options can an anti tax GOP Governor take to fix Florida’s budget? Would cutting all the public schools funds be enough? Would cutting the police and fire Dept be enough?
Just how much can Florida hide with Enron accounting?
Marinara,
First of all, the U.S. has done less stim relative to the size of the economy than Japan did, according to Krugman.
Second, beware aggregate growth rates. One of my biggest gripes is that intl comparisons on economic growth rates are not easily available on a per capita basis. U.S. has much larger pop growth than Japan, so per cap they might have been done better over this period than the 2% (about zero per capita) than the U.S. is likely to do.
Third, Japan is a high saving economy, so the govt fiscal stim is financed internally, rather than being held hostage to the willingness of China, India, Saudi Arabia to buy USG debt.
Third, I think, but am not sure, that the Japanese income distribution is much more even than that in the U.S.
All these factors make the situation in the U.S. much more dire than Japan’s.
How is the Florida coast doing oil still washing up on the beaches? How are beach front/oil slick properties selling for?
At the very least Florida should show us if the GOP can with tax cuts defeat a Great Depression.
The GOP controls the state lets see if they can run Florida better than Bush ran America.
No oil for a long time. Beaches are clean down to probably a foot. They are supposed to work this winter on deeper cleaning down to 18-24 inches, I think… Nothing is selling here beachfront or not. (Pensacola)
You can add New Mexico to that list.
I do wonder if they’re trying to kill us all off.
Here you go:
“Crisis is an Opportunity”: Engineering a Global Depression to Create a Global Government
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=21632
All else is kabuki
Terrific punchline at the end of sobering and thought-provoking post. I’m no fan of Obama’s, but the only thing Republicans haven’t accused him of is kidnapping the Lindbergh baby.
Primo material, 4cd! :)
hee hee. Since last night I’ve been looking around the house, trying to find a place to put a freezer. Need to speriment’ with growing veggies in sand… wouldn’t trust my own canning after reading up on that…. plus my mama made me do that years and years ago and it was no fun.
Not anymore – we voted that away yesterday (GIANT GRIN) :-) And we got Brown, more Boxer, and decent Dems won all up & down the ticket. We’re as Blue as it gets, and the Rethugs can’t use that stupid 2/3 rule to strangle the Budget anymore. I think we’re in for a Golden age.
My thought exactly! It will truly be the Jeffersonian experiment of the states. Glad Im in Cali.
All this talk of Florida bail-outs and underwater real estate reminds me – I’m still waiting for a big ice shelf to break off and drown Florida. After all, they put Bush in office in 2000, which compounded global warming, which is melting the ice which will drown them. They did this (all of it) to themselves.
Yes, I see what you folks are saying now. That does make a very good set of parallel experiments.
how ’bout arenas? we just opened a brand, spanking new arena. It’s HUGE!! Biggest indoor scoreboard in America. Or something. Biggest something. WEe’re a big city now, doncha know? 2010 convention, here we come. Yay!!!
I live here in Florida, it won’t go broke because Republicans will cut everything to the bone. Fortunately I believe that there is plenty of fat in local governments. Not that I like Republicans.
Don’t expect florida to go broke and need a bailout. People may go broke, bankrupted, or Foreclosed but it won’t matter.
Not much I can add except even my “liberal” or at least Democratic friends gag when I mention that an income tax might help. I’ll try to find the link but i thought i read someplace that FL got more stimulus $$ than anyplace else. and repubs kicked ass last night. go figger. they have some hard choices here when that next budget comes up without stimulus $$ and rick scott isn’t the guy i want making them. or our legislature. jeez
here’s that link. FL had most stimulus jobs in the US in 3rd quarter. And Dems got the shit beat out of themseelves. Great job, guys.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/os-florida-stimulus-report-20101101,0,7398754.story
And when that money runs out, Jim, we’re even more fucked. Goin’ back to NJ. I do believe I’ve had enough (aplogies to Dylan).
I live in Orlando and I have no idea where all these idiot voters are coming from. Maybe it’s just that I hang out with like minded people. Or maybe the elections are all rigged and we are the “test” state. I do find it rather suspicious that the state seemed to be on a republican only feeding frenzy last night but Alex Sink and Rick Scott ran neck to neck.
Thanks to my hot flashes Canada might not be so bad.
There’s a French embassy in Miamer…and I think an Italian one.. Going to check and see if they will let me surrender there.
Uhm. NJ won’t be much better. See, Christie, Chris. You know, the guy who just killed the tunnel project and thousands of jobs for his state. Sheesh.
That is definitely my hope. One of the few truisms ever uttered by Obama came following his election in 2008: “Elections have consequences.” I certainly hope that those majorities of voters who have now elevated the Republican Party at the federal, state, and local levels are held accountable for their decisions.
Canada is quite receptive to American immigrants, depending on how you want to arrive. I’ve got a post with details, if you’re interested.
I’m definitely interested! British Columbia is looking pretty nice right about now.
I believe I read your post. It had a link to citizenship tests? We passed those tests. And a friend of mine assures me global warming is alive and well in Toronto. Toronto had their warmest winter on record there last winter, while Orlando had the coldest winter in 20 years. Go figure.
Trim notices will come out this month and the assessed value of homes will be down about 40% in Pinellas County. Even folks who purchased homes prior to the bubble are now underwater.
I sold my last house in NC in 2006. You couldn’t pay me to buy a house right now, especially in Florida, even though I’m gettin’ the itch to have our own place. But I want proof it’s our own place and that’s not happening.
My notice came today. Alachua County is doing better for now. My assessed value went back up a whopping 2.6%, but is down significantly from when we bought about five years ago. I don’t have the heart to dig out the documents to see just how far it dropped.
I had the impression that Oklahoma and Arizona already were just as Republican as Florida is now–if not more. Am I wrong?
No problem. Just close the public schools for a couple of years. As it is with the immigration mess, the growers are going to find it hard to find foreign stoop labor, so we will need some domestic immigrants to do the same work for the same (or lower) pay. Älways a silver lining.
The United States is making the same mistake that Japan did. Japan spent lavishly on stimulus without also reforming its banking system. Another mistake Japan made is that, just when the economy started to rebound, they increased the regressive consumption tax. Expect localities in the US to do the same with sales taxes because they’ve lost revenue in the bad economy.
Even if you take the CBO’s high-end estimate of 3.3 million jobs saved, we spent almost $250,000 in stimulus for every job supposedly saved. Why so little bang for the buck? Banks are not lending. They are making money off the Fed instead by buying and selling Treasury paper.
Obama always takes the path of least resistance. That is why he could never be an agent of change. Pay attention. It is his most salient characteristic.
It’s a comin’! My own district has cut $55 million in the last 3 years. Yesterday voters rejected a mil tax to make ends meet and elected 2 new board members who ran on a “cutting the fat” platform. We’ve cut about 38% already and had a hiring and travel freeze for 3 years. Our superintendent is an accountant and he’s scared silly.
Nothing else to cut but libraries and football programs with the class size mandate. That will go over well. Fixed costs keep increasing, state keeps slashing and cutting, taxes keep going down. Where else can it go but closed for good?q
I hope Rick Scott will hold himself to the same standard he held Obama. However, Rick has given himself 7 years to meet job targets if I heard him correctly. The Republicans were calling Obama a disaster after Bush’s almost global financial meltdown. And they were calling Obama a disaster after 2 years. Scott and his Republican co-horts should be given no more than 2 years. If not that should be THE ISSUE in Florida in 2012. Scott and his Board ofDirectors at Columbia/HCA still have not answered the main questions, as far I can tell. When and what did they know about the 1.7 billion Medicare fraud? Scott is very evasive on his youtube deposition video. The citizens of Florida and Texas deserve answers from Scott and the prominent Republican Board members (e. g. Darla Moore wife of his business partner Richard Rainwater).
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/11/2/104029/886
TCU, Japan uses the USD they’ve accumulated to buy our debt, alright, but they use their own fiat currency for their own bank bailouts and stimulus in exactly the way we do.
In fact, just like us when they implement a stimulus, it’s always two small. That’s why Japan has a lost decade to its credit, and also why we are heading for the same fate.
Yup, except we still have the 2/3rds requirement for taxes, plus Prop 26 passed. Still, I think we have the potential to start crawling out, if not actually do it. Brown has a real challenge on his hands.
Football programs? Cut football programs, in Florida? Surely you jest.
If Republicons in Florida cut football, there would be a Democratic tsunami.
How did I end up sideing with the repubs? I gotta go re read this.
:)
Corporations and the Banksters are being bailed out through the backdoor dealings with the Federal Reserve.They no longer have to come to the treasury dept. for taxpayer bailouts!This way Congress relinquishes it’s oversight powers without coverage in the media.QE2 is happening as we speak!!
Fine. Let this miserable, shit-kicking state sink into the ocean.
The next time a force five hurricane hits Florida, Scott can hold a bake sale to pay for the clean up.
You all voted for Republicans, then enjoy the ride.
Gee, they have libraries in Florida-who knew?
Now football, cutting that is non-negotiable. The rabble need their circuses with the gladiators after all.
Uhm, we didn’t “all” vote for Republicans. In fact, in the gubernatorial race, it was darn near 50-50:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/11/03/1907692/tense-moments-for-sink-scott-camps.html
One thing Floridians can do is find out how much recovery money you’ve received and whether those receiving funds are in compliance with reporting requirements. (You’d be amazed how many of those companies have simply stopped telling the government what they’ve done with taxpayer funds.)
I’m thinking of starting a “Committee to Discover the Whereabouts of the Recovery Money”* and writing to each of the non-compliant companies in my state asking what they’ve done with the recovery money and why they haven’t reported it.
With all these state houses turning red, it would be nice to give them something to do (help discover where the money is, what it went for, how many jobs it created/saved) and what, if anything, they have planned for the rest of the money. (most states have only taken half of the money, so the “jobs” ratio to funds distributed is difficult to calculate unless you look at each state individually on the map.
*help with a catchier title would be much appreciated — preferable something that spells D E A D B E A T.
However, with proposition 26 it requires a 2/3′s majority for state levies or fees for government programs. It was backed by the oil companies and it passed. This will not help California. They will still be in the same problem when it comes to raising revenues from businesses. Their hands are tied.
I’ve been picking up properties left and right at tax lien and tax certificate sales in Florida. Lets not change anything just yet. OK?
And it continues:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/11/03/1905836/florida-to-drop-350-patients-in.html#storylink=fbuser
The Florida Department of Health plans to drop about 350 uninsured HIV/AIDS patients from a federally funded program that pays for all or most of their drugs, because of a budget crisis.
An additional 2,000 or more HIV-positive patients are at risk of being bumped from the program unless the state can close a $16 million shortfall in the next few months, officials said Tuesday.
“We are all pursuing every possible legal and financial option we can to make up the deficit,” said Tom Liberti, chief of the state’s Bureau of HIV/AIDS. “No one wants to disenroll one patient.”
In June, the shortfall forced the Health Department to put more than 2,300 patients on a waiting list for the AIDS Drug Assistance Program. About 1,100 live in South Florida. The program also halted coverage for many drugs that treat HIV-related complications.
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/11/03/1905836/florida-to-drop-350-patients-in.html#storylink=fbuser#ixzz14K1nPTOQ
Priscilla,
Ah, gubmint at work……………..I have no sympathay for Florida voters. They are getting exactly what they so richly deserve……….As for Alex Sink, she played footsie with Goldman Sachs by giving Goldman the state’s pension fund. So, you had a choice between two thieves, Scott, who robbed the Medicare fund blind, or Sink, who stole the state’s pension fund and gave it to the very people very much responsible for the nation’s financial collapse. So, in the final analysis, it very much doesn’t matter which wing of the Republican Party runs the sate of Florida. It’s still going into the ground………….
Oh, I’m sure the King of the Medicare Fraud incoming governor will be all over this first thing. /s
I’m sorry, and I stand corrected. I hope that you all survive this miserable downturn. It really is a tough situtation.
An eighteen year supply? That is incredible, and frightening.
I’ve already facebooked this, Jim, since all of my siblings live in Florida. They used to laugh at me for living in the north where taxes are higher… I don’t know what to think now, except that Rick Scott is a complete waste of a human being.
I’m going to see if you’ve already tweeted this and then re-tweet it.
You’ll all be saved when the Miami Heat win the NBA title!
Gee, they’re only sick people. If they were successful, they’d be able to buy their own medicine from Rick Scott’s old outfit, now wouldn’t they? I mean, if you can’t afford to pay for your own health care in America, shouldn’t you just have the decency to crawl into a hole and die quietly so you don’t embarrass your compassionate fellow Americans?
For a real comparison pay attention to Great Britain. Their “coilition government” has been completely controlled by the Consrvatives, and they are about 6mo. ahead of us. They are in the process of firing 1/2 a million government workers and this is just the very first step in doing away with goverment services and privatizing everything. The only thing they have going for them is that they have a referendum form of government and can call for elections any time they want. They don’t have to wait four years to put the brakes on.
It ain’t no better here in Ohio. Kasich, who after getting booted out of congress went to work for Lehman Bros. where he used his connections to get state employees and teachers to switch thier pension funds into Lehmans diretives markets is now Governor. His campaign platform can be summed up as, “if you can’t make a profit from it get rid of it”. He wants to privatize everything including public schools and do away with the state income tax. Portman, who when he wa last in congress was one of the major architechs of the Bush Tax /cuts, is now our Senator. Bill Johnson, who made millions in the forclosure crisis, is or Representative. Dewine, who left congress in disgrace, is now our Attoney General. And the Secretary of State is now a long time Republican insider, So Obama or any Democrat does not have a chace at winning in 2012 because the voting will once again be rigged to ensure that the Repug wins.
Gonna get real ugly here over the next four years.
Just out of curiosity, how would you have had Sink invest the Florida pension fund?
And since you seem to despise most all of the available choices, who and what do you recommend instead?
Yeah, the Cincinnati Enquirer had a Kasich article this morning that started with how he’s going to stop funding for a statewide train project but create jobs.
And I’m sure he said it with no sense of irony
“Gee, they’re only sick people.”
Gee, they’re only sick mostly gay people. (Fixed it for ya.)
“I certainly hope that those majorities of voters who have now elevated the Republican Party at the federal, state, and local levels are held accountable for their decisions.”
The way Dem voters have been held accountable for the crap shoved down our throats the last 2 – 4 years?